Edinburgh Council plans new-build

Edinburgh City Council has unveiled plans to build a new care home and community centre on the site of a former primary school which was destroyed in a fire. The new 60-bed home in Tay Street is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2008 and is part of a Â£20m plan to provide four new care homes across the city to cope with a shortage of places. Edinburgh City Council’s health and social care chief Kingsley Thomas said the development was part of the council’s long-term strategy to increase the number of publicly-run care home places in the city. â€œThe new homes will also set a benchmark for quality for older people’s homes and we have consulted older people’s groups when drawing up the designs,â€ said Mr Thomas. â€œWe believe the Tay Street development is going to be of real benefit to the local community, not just for the older people who live at the home but as a badly needed facility for older people in the day and in the evenings when we hope it can be used by the wider community.â€